Fairfield home offers buyers room to grow

Published 2:11 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The name of the street alone -- Mountain Laurel -- offers a hint at the attractive location of the colonial that is this week's featured house.

The yellow clapboard house with dark green shutters and white trim sits on three-quarters of an acre at 652 Mountain Laurel Road in Fairfield, directly across the street from a 23-acre open space parcel in the lower Greenfield Hills section. That parcel offers privacy, as there are no houses directly across the street, as well as access to walking trails. And yet, the house is less than three miles from I-95 and about two miles from the Merritt Parkway, making it convenient to downtown Fairfield, restaurants, entertainment centers, schools and retail shops.

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The house was built in 1985 and offers Old World charm and contemporary living. It has a gabled roof and 3,500-square feet of living space -- and that does not include the basement level, and a spacious yard that provides enough room for children to play, adults to entertain and host family gatherings, or avid gardeners to plant until their hearts are content.

The property has a mix of open lawn and professional landscaping with mature trees and plantings. This house was the original home in the Stroll Rock Common enclave. Mountain Laurel Road is not a "cut through" street so it is active with neighbors walking by themselves, walking dogs and children riding bikes, giving the area a very neighborly feel.

Along the front of the property is a fieldstone wall. The paved driveway leads to the two-car attached, under-house garage and to the red brick terrace with slate steps and path to the front entrance. The steps to the front door are red brick. Above the door is a leaded glass starburst in the half-arched window with pebbled and frosted glass.

Inside the entrance foyer, the walls are painted in two-tone yellow and soft gold vertical stripes. It has a parquet floor, custom crown molding, chair rail and a coat closet with two bi-fold doors. There is also a large utility closet under the stairs to the second floor. The living room is to the right and a powder room is accessed on the left. The powder room has a parquet floor, wallpaper, chair rail, crown molding and beige commode.

The living room has a red brick fireplace surrounded by an ivory custom wood mantle with dentil molding, and a slightly raised red brick hearth with a natural wood border. This room also has crown molding. From the living room take one step down into a former porch that was enclosed in 2002 by the current owners to create a home office.

There is deep dentil molding in this office, which also features a vaulted ceiling, custom built-in cherry bookshelves and cabinets and four sets of three double-hung windows overlooking the attractive side and back yards. All these windows are nine-over-nine. There is also a decorative arched window above some of them. A French door leads to the backyard.

A nice, wide open dining room makes for comfortable dining and entertaining. This room has a bump-out bay window with one large picture window and two nine-over-nine double-hungs, chair railing, raised picture frame molding on the lower walls and crown molding.

In the kitchen there is a hardwood floor. It also has St. Cecily granite counter tops featuring garnets. The counter is configured in a U-shape and has a peninsula that houses two porcelain sinks, one of which is very deep. Also featured in the kitchen are cherry cabinets, crown molding and a backsplash of tumbled marble with mottled beige and green Vermont verde marble inserts. In the eat-in section of the kitchen there is a large wall of windows overlooking the backyard and a door to the wood deck, which has railings and built-in flower boxes.

Appliances include a Jenn-Air range top on one of the granite counters, an Amana refrigerator, which has cherry wood paneling to blend into the cabinets, a Meile dishwasher and Bosch double wall-mounted ovens.

From the kitchen take two steps down into the family room, which is a perfectly square 22-feet by 22-feet space. It has a floor-to-ceiling red brick fireplace with a raised brick hearth, built-in bookshelves, cabinets and desk, crown molding, double-hung and casement windows.

The family room leads to a hallway that runs the length of the kitchen leading into the entrance foyer. Just off that hallway is a large pantry closet and across from it is a laundry room with a floor of six- by six-inch white ceramic tiles, cabinets and a Kenmore washer and dryer.

On the second floor there are four bedrooms, all with wall-to-wall carpeting, although the hallway has a hardwood floor. The hallway also features crown molding and chair rail. Just off this hallway is a full bath with a floor of Italian porcelain tile in a mottled ivory, a custom wood vanity with a granite counter and double sinks and a white commode.

At the top of the stairs is the master bedroom, which has angled walls and a sitting area. The master bath has a tumbled marble floor, a shower room with the same marble backsplash and a rain shower head, a water closet, vaulted ceiling and skylight. It also features a double vanity with a granite counter, whirlpool tub with a tumbled marble surround, barn windows and a wall of wood planks installed on the diagonal. The master bedroom suite also has his and hers walk-in closets with organizers.

The remaining bedrooms are large and all have crown molding. Two of the three have walk-in closets, and one has a decorative band of chair rail, crown molding and a double closet.

The full basement is about 75 percent finished and includes carpeting, an exercise room, playroom and a half bath, and it still provides ample space for mechanicals and a work area.

The backyard is enclosed by a border of tall, well-established trees. A shed on the side of the house looks like a little playhouse with green shutters, two arched doors and window boxes.